Whatever happens, the upcoming moderation in temps sounds pretty good lol. I agree with the standard west/east, overrunning pattern. That's our easy way to get snow. I've learned over the years to look at the h5 pattern first and I really haven't seen a single good one this season (note, I haven't paid attention to every system). What I've noticed is it seems like the models tend to adjust to a subpar h5 look as we get into the short range (e.g., we usually don't want the 540 line up in the Midwest unless we have a pretty good antecedent airmass in place). Regardless, we still have 2 months of prime climo left. If there's been anything that's occurred over the last year it's that there has been cold available, so an amplifying wave (or even a clipper) that digs far enough south could get it done (late January and early Feb 2010 had a couple of sneaky events before the Snowmaggedon/Mauler combo).